BIBLIOTHECA PHILOSOPHICA HERMETICA:

A Treasures Chamber to be rediscovered, part 2

by Eva Christina

Translation of an article which appeared on the magazine HERA no.77 (year

2006)

The words inscribed on the front of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, Nosce te ipsum,
and those of Hermes Trismegistus, He who knows himself, knows the All,
reveal a Truth founded on the inner knowledge of the human being who is
linked to the inner knowledge of the cosmos: As above so below, to
accomplish the miracles of the One.

Our journey continues. In the previous issue we got to know the Bibliotheca
Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) in Amsterdam through its director, Esther
Oosterwijk-Ritman.
We found out how the BPH was founded, we learnt about its publishing output
and in particular about its spiritual function which now, in the Era of Acquarius,
is more vibrant than ever: it presents a strong impulse towards the search and
discovery of the inwardness dwelling in us.
This was the very reason why a Library of this sort came into existence: to
make available a body of works of enormous cultural and literary worth, with
one common element, that of a language and a spiritual core which goes
beyond time, but which spoke to the Man of the past as it still speaks to the
Man of today.
The existential enigmas are always the same and especially Gnosis (the inner
knowledge of the divine, from the Greek γνῶσις), Alchemy (the transmutation
of base metal into gold, from the Arabic al-kimiya or al-khimiya (‫ الكيمياء‬o
‫ )الخيمياء‬and Hermetism (after the figure of Hermes Trismegustus, ‘The thrice
greatest’, who unites within him the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek
Hermes) can furnish the answers which may reveal the mystery of Life. And
not only that. They can also help us seizing their deep sense, through the
manifestation, within man himself, of a new cognition that through mental
comprehension and the divine perception in the heart can be truly realized in
one’s life.
‘As above so below’: these are the words of an ancient hermetic axiom, which
allows us to understand how man, the microcosm, is a projection of the
universe itself (macrocosm). And what, if not that, is the great secret of life
revealed to the gold seeker? In the western world as in the eastern one, in the
past as in the present. Let us now resume our itinerary by listening to the
voice of Joost Ritman, founder of the BPH, who will disclose a few important
elements of a universal Christianity, seeding sparks of Light for those who wish
to receive them.

Interview with Joost Ritman, founder of the Bibliotheca Philosophica

Hermetica
Joost Ritman: I think it is very important to say that the Bibliotheca
Philosophica Hermetica traces its origin to a new spiritual impulse which came
about in 1945 with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices. This discovery
led to a worldwide revaluation of our spiritual roots. The Nag Hammadi Library
contains a body of works representing pure Christian thought, as for example
the Gospel of Thomas, the gnostic thoughts contained in the Gospel of Truth
attributed to Valentinus or the Letter to Rheginos, known also as The Treastise
on the Resurrection. The Middle Ages witnessed a major spiritual development
in northern Italy, northern Spain, southern France and in Occitania, when
gnostic thought was reintroduced in western society: the origin of Christianity,
the origin of Gnosis and the origin of Hermetism. In that age the Hebrew
Kabbalah came into existence and in the Brotherhood of the Cathars we see a
return to the sources of Christianity. It is said that the Gospel of Thomas,
which contains words of Christ, was already known at that time: there was a
great interest in the gnostic view on dualism. The frequent references to the
Asclepius of Hermes Trismegistus shows that there was evident interest in this
matter in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance.
Italy in the fifteenth century witnessed the rediscovery of many texts
originating from the Middle East, Byzantium and Alexandria.
In Italy texts became available pertaining to the origins of Christianity, as for
instance the works of Greek philosophers like Plato, Plotinus or Pythagoras. A
major body of works became available in the fifteenth century, mostly
manuscripts and printed books which found a rebirth within the Italian
Renaissance. In this way, it seems that we have been living more
Renaissances! Two thousands years ago the birth of Christianity provided an
enormous impulse. A thousand years ago the same impulse recurred in the
culture of the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, another impulse was the
revaluation of the Platonic Academy. We, as founders of the BPH, believe that
everything happening today is anchored in the spiritual history of the western
world. What we define as Christianity, Gnosis and Hermetism is concentrated
in the main texts of our Library: here we find a source of information and
works embedded in the city of Amsterdam. We also feel there is a direct
relation with Italy, where gnostic thought was disseminated through the
presence of Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Cosimo de’ Medici. These
personalities at the time emphasized the vision of a free world of conservative,
religious and philosophical thought. We might say that in the fifteenth century
a very clear perception was born of what we call ‘Gnosis’: the primordial
source of spirituality flowing through the history of civilization.
The BPH wishes to reintroduce to the world that component, besides the
theological and philosophical currents. We do this by collecting works, then
researching them in collaboration with the academic world which helps us
working in the middle of hundreds of scholars throughout the world. We have
had highlights in the past with the organization of exhibitions in Italy, in the
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence in 1999 on the theme of ‘The
return of Hermes Trismegistus’. In Rome in 2000 we contributed to an
exhibition on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Giordano Bruno.
In 2002 we organized an exhibition in Venice in the Biblioteca Nazionale
Marciana: we can say that we returned to the heart of the impulse. Florence-
Rome-Venice: the return of a spiritual impulse to its Italian cultural home.

How do you regard this spiritual impulse in the present times?

I believe it is essential to seek out reliable sources, original works, either
manuscript or printed, to learn to read in them the key to a new vision of the

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world. If the first rebirth occurred a thousand years ago and the second one
five hundred years ago, then in the third rebirth – our present era – we will
witness the Renaissance of the hermetic-christian Gnosis, anchored within the
Mystery School. I am a Rosicrucian and I base myself on the Rosicrucian
Manifestos of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood in the early seventeenth century.
On the other side there is also the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices,
which affirm the need to rediscover anew the sources of our roots. Our Library
bears testimony that we are living in a period which is the eve of a powerful
outburst of the hermetic-christian Gnosis in the western world.

Are we talking about a spiritual message directed to the inner of

mankind?
Certainly. What I mean can be made clear by the following example:
if we ask a Buddhist if he would ever want to change anything about the
original meaning of Buddhism, he would say no. If we ask a Muslim whether he
would ever want to change anything about the original meaning of the Coran,
he would say no. If we ask a Jew if he would ever want to change anything
about the original meaning of the Old Testament, he would say no. But if we
ask a Christian, he would not be able to answer! Because he is unaware that at
the Council of Nicea in the year 325 the true impulse of early Christianity was
destroyed and reduced to silence. At that period a Catholic doctrine was
developed and introduced into society which would no longer let Christianity,
or Hermetism, or Gnosis speak out in their true authentic sense. The BPH can
be seen therefore as a PROTEST against that particular historical event,
because the western world, in its spiritual development, which lies in the most
profound experience of mankind, does not owe anything to an organized
Church, its hierarchy and its dogmas.
I believe that we have accumulated in the western world an incredible delay
with respect to the most ancient sources, fortunately to be found in this
Library, sources which go back more than 4,500 years. The sources of
information, the sources of the Spirit, the sources of the Spiritual Force which
raise themselves up as a rock, as a pyramid, as a sphinx. That is the success
of the BPH: all the ingredients are here present.

What does the future hold for the Library?

At present the staff is engaged in research, preparing exhibitions (we have
also issued more than 40 publications to this purpose), oral and written
exchanges. As for the texts that we possess in their original form, we have
instituted a very important series set up in order to give back the ancient
christian, hermetic and gnostic texts to the public.
The future will entail providing information, teaching, making available the
sources to help bring about a new orientation concerning the meaning of
authentic Christianity. I am a Christian, I am not an enemy of religion, but I
reject an organization which posits itself between Man and the perception of
the divine. I believe that in the western world we have reached a point at
which each man ought to feel free in his own religious experience, in the same
way he is in China with Lao-Tse, in India with Buddha, in Judaism with Moses,
in Islam with Muhammed: Christ on the other hand has become invisible in our
society.

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We understand you are going to organize in the near future an
exhibition on Jacob Böhme, great witness of the sixteenth-century
mysticism…
Yes, this is true. We have already published a volume entitled From
Poimandres to Jacob Böhme. Jacob Böhme was really a gnostic, that is to say a
man trying to represent creation as a world in becoming, thus the original
divine world called ‘Logos’ in Gnosis, a christocentric force vibrating in the
whole universe.
It is the Planet of the Logos which densifies until the Planet of the Spirit, which
is our Planet (Earth) with all its waves of life in becoming. The meaning of life
on earth for Man, who is the microcosm, lies in the authentic mission to learn
to perceive the mystery about himself, about creation, about the thought of
divine creation. Böhme offers a clear explanation of the original world, which is
profoundly expressed in what we call the visible cosmos, whether it is the
infinite universe or the earth. Exactly like Böhme, we believe that the sources
are to be found within Man. In the Dialogue between the master and the
disciple the latter asks: ‘What is God?’ The master answers: ‘If for a moment
you can be in the world but far removed from thoughts, projections and
imaginings, if you could open up to the Mystery of God, then that ineffable
name will speak to your heart’. Indeed, Gnosis is not only knowledge, but a
living reality. As one can live what one experiences in love, so it is in life. The
authentic meaning of life reveals itself in the moment we open up to the
divine. The key in Böhme is offered in his work Aurora oder Morgenröte im
Aufgang (1612). This work contains the authentic origins of Gnosis. Here we
also see the image of the Earth, at whose summit a female figure marking the
rota; she delineates the circle of perception which is above the earth. It is the
image of the soul seated on this planet which traces the circle of eternity. One
line represents what we call the divine world, the Logos, the illuminated
thought of God’s creations manifested in the unlimited perception which can
be defined as ‘the eye of God’ and which is placed between the zodiac and
creation. He who achieves Gnosis is able to perceive this world in the Aurora.

Are you referring to the message sent out by all authentic Mystery
Schools worthy of the name?
I am very touched by the thought that there are more and more messengers,
bearers of the torch of Light who do not seek the Light but who know the
Light! The ultimate aim to which they aspire is that the Force of that Light may
become visibile, exactly as a torch in the world. I have understood that this is
the compendium of the entire heritage of the western world. In this Library
you can find a Treasures Chamber, in other words the writings of the pre-
Christian era, those of early Christianity and those pertaining to its evolution in
the past 2,000 years.
Thanks to the Library, we may now learn about all this without any obstacles!
For example, when we organized the exhibition on Hermes Trismegistus, we
made up his chronology and managed to trace it back to the period of the
Pyramids Texts. In the sepulchral temples of the pyramids, Hermes talks like
Thot. He talks to the community existing 4,500 years ago…

Could you describe to our readers the actuality of the message

contained in the hermetic and alchemical texts?

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We decided to call the first exhibition in Italy ‘The Return of Hermes
Trismegistus’. In its analysis, we arrived at the brilliant figure of Cardinal
Bessarion, who already at the Council of 1439 talked about the future of
religion with regard to the heritage of Byzantium but also to that of the
western world, which had its crowning moment in Rome. He introduced to the
world the thought of Plato, Plotinus and of the western hermetic philosophers.
Bessarion donated his library with its numerous manuscripts to the Biblioteca
Nazionale Marciana, a donation which was the founding collection for that
library. At the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana I asked to be allowed to see the
hermetic works of Bessarion and an hour later I held in my hands the codex of
the Corpus Hermeticum owned by Bessarion himself! He annotated the
manuscript himself and provided an index. Bessarion, a great spiritual
personality, was open to the significance of Hermetism, an openness which to
my mind is lacking today. The true meaning of Man, of the world and of
creation, is not to be found in the first instance in philosophy or in theology.
We need to refocus on them! Professor Quispel (1916-2006) and I were
interested in a joint project with the Coptic Museum of Cairo. We are referring
to the Nag Hammadi Library which writings, discovered in the years, have
nurtured in us a growing aspiration towards the Truth. As we similarly did in
2000, bringing to Rome the gnostic writings of Bruno which were not in Italy,
in the same way we would like to tell to the western world what the BPH
proclaims: that Truth has always existed, now as it did 2,000 years ago. I will
give you an example: at Nag Hammadi, in the fourth century, an abbot
received a letter (on the occasion of Easter) by Athanasius, who in the name of
the Pope ordained that all writings which did not conform to the canon of the
Church had to be destroyed or burnt. The abbot therefore decided to hide the
thirteen codices in a jar which he entrusted to the earth. Nobody knew this
place until 1945, when a peasant, looking for fertile soil, hit against the jar
with his hoe. I consider this event to be a divine token, something of such
importance is brought to light in order to transmit it to mankind. This is the
impulse we have been talking about so far, but it needs to be recognized! At
these times there are various impulses which are active, they were so five
hundreds years ago, a thousand years ago, two thousands years ago, and so is
today. The Logos is the Christic principle of becoming, in sum in everything
which is motion towards a real manifestation. The connection with the entire
universe, the interconnection of the worlds, of the planetary, the solar systems
and of the Milky Way have a particular relationship with what I define as the
heliocentric element. Everything which moves in space and in the world
consists of the same elements. To me the connection moves from the
christocentric to the heliocentric element. At a given moment we encounter
the Earth, that is the mysterious world, the vision of the geocentric world. At
the end of the sixteenth century the belief was that everything revolved
around the Earth, a belief subsequently negated. The world, the vision of the
geocentric world is part of a much larger thought: from the geocentric to the
heliocentric motion, in order to attain the Christocentric element. Hermes
Trismegistus offers a clear explanation: Sol est Deus visibilis – the sun is the
visible God.

BOX

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This is intended as an homage to the dutch professor Gilles Quispel, who left
this world in March of this year while on one of his sojourns in Egypt, the
country he loved. His tireless studies in the field of Christian Gnosis,
Hermetism and Alchemy have given profound contributions to the history for
mankind, to the study of original sources from which we may glean a fragment
of the Truth which for many had still remained unknown, but which Gilles
Quispel has made available to the world. He provided a translation of The
Gospel of Thomas, published by the BPH. Furthermore he collaborated on the
dutch translation of the Corpus Hermeticum (now in its fifth edition) and later
he translated, on his own, the great hermetic work Asclepius. De volkomen
openbaring van Hermes Trismegistus. On the occasion of his eightieth
birthday, the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica published a volume in his
honour: From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: gnosis, hermetism and the
christian tradition. He continued with Valentinus de gnosticus en zijn Evangelie
der Waarheid. The works found at Nag Hammadi were of vital importance to
Gilles Quispel, who was involved in plans to mount an exhibition in Amsterdam
on the Nag Hammadi codices with the aid of the Coptic Museum in Cairo. May
the memory of this man, philosopher, theologian and seeker of the Truth,
remain vibrant in all our hearts.